Chapter Thirty
Well…shit!
The night was frigid, but the sky was breathtaking and clear. The crescent moon painted the dark woods with a silver ribbon of light.
There was no sign of Adrian but something or someone moved in the darkness, and before I could react, large hands wrapped around my throat and pinned me against the brick wall. The hands were ice cold and razor sharp nails scratched the surface of my neck.
A woman with large crimson eyes, red hair, and a pale face snarled in my face. Two fangs glistened in her mouth.
I gasped and tried to break free, but the woman’s strength was fierce. She squeezed tighter around my throat. One of her nails penetrated through the skin and inched into the side of my neck.
I kicked my feet and tried to break her hold on me, but the harder I struggled, the more force she applied.
“Stop struggling or I will rip you apart.” She hissed. Her crimson eyes grew wide with rage.
A male came up behind the hissing woman. He was tall and slender with the same color eyes and black hair tied in a ponytail at the nape of his neck and translucent skin.
I have seen this man before. This vampire. He was the same one that Adrian shot at the club on the first night we met. I remember those evil eyes and that dark smile on his full mouth.
“You should know better than to be out here alone, dear Jade.” He spoke with a smooth voice. “Drop her, Mona.” He ordered.
Mona turned to him and snarled. He fisted a hand in her short hair and pulled her head back violently.
“Drop her, I said.” He gritted his teeth and the woman complied.
I fell to the floor in a gasping heap.
My throat throbbed with pain, blood leaked all over me from the gash in my throat.
My beast surfaced – I felt her inside me. Felt her struggle for freedom and revenge for the harm they had done us.
“Tsk. Tsk.” The man crouched in front of me. “Don’t do that, youngster.” He warned. “You are not yet strong enough to fight me, and I would hate to kill you before surrendering you to Gabriel.”
He moved closer. His pale hand reached to touch me.
I flinched and spat in his face.
He gripped my chin and forced me to look at him while he wiped his face and then licked his fingers.
He gave me a smile that made me shiver. Then he shook his head and grabbed my hair tightly and pulled me into his body.
“Such a pity…” he whispered, licking my face. “Such a waste of beauty…and warmth.” He was trembling and swallowing back his own saliva. “I didn’t think I would have such a difficult time controlling myself…” Fangs appeared in his mouth and he pulled me closer, bending my head at a painful angle.
Mona moved in and slapped him hard across his face. “Don’t. We need to bring her to that thirsty bastard if we want to walk in the sun!” She roared.
“But she’s so…tempting.” He swallowed again.
I felt my wolf rise to the surface and began choking on her fur.
I started coughing, sharp pain started coming in waves from my stomach to my throat. It felt like my ribcage was going to collapse on my stomach.
My hands convulsed. My fingernails exploded into long claws. I growled and lunged for the vampire, but he moved too quickly – like a roach under a light.
He didn’t get far though, someone grabbed him from behind and tore him in half before I could blink. His body fell in two bloody piles next to me.
The female vampire shrieked and moved like the wind. In one motion, she swept me up by the throat. “I’ll rip her throat out!” She snarled.
It was only that moment that I saw my father balancing on the balls of his feet on the balcony railing. His gray eyes had bled to black. The growl escaping from his mouth caused goose bumps to rise along my skin. “Let us find out if that is a possibility.” Lucian taunted.
While Stephan, Adrian, and my two bodyguards flanked my father, four vampires came up behind them. Hideous, muscled vampires with drooling mouths, black eyes, massive bat-like wings, and hairless, ivory bodies.
They snarled and attacked. My father lunged for me, but Mona yanked me out of reach and tossed me up into the air like a Frisbee.
One of the hairless creatures snatched me by my arms in mid-air and soared high above the house. Blood continued to seep all over me from the gash in my neck. I felt too weak to fight. Before succumbing to darkness, I faintly heard my father scream out for me.
***
I was freezing and naked.
Somewhere nearby I could smell smoke and hear the crackle of flames.
It was dark and I was sore all over, but I staggered to my feet and felt my way around. The bricks around me were ice cold. I moved slowly against the wall until my fingers brushed steel. I was in a cell. But where?
All around me I could hear faint whimpering.
“There is no way out.” A frail voice cried. “It’s pointless.”
“Who’s there?” I asked, trying to blink away the dark.
“Alexia,” she said in a whisper.
My heart pounded with aggression.
“Alexia Tate?” I asked.
After a moment she affirmed. “Yes.”
I did my best to concentrate and use the beast inside of me like a pair of night vision goggles.
Slowly, the cell came into view.
Huddled together in a corner, naked and muddy with matted hair and quivering lips, three girls stared at me wide-eyed.
When I could breathe past their fear, I couldn’t help but smile.
They were here.
They were alive.
I had to get them to safety.
“Don’t be afraid, girls.” I urged and walked slowly toward them. “My name is Jade. I’ve been looking for you.”
They said nothing as I approached, but the look on their dirty faces said enough. They had been traumatized. Even if I saved them, I don’t know that any amount of therapy would heal them.
“You can’t help us.” One of them cried. I believed she was Olivia. “He will kill you.”
“Let him try.” I hissed. I was close enough now that I could touch them if I wanted to. But I didn’t.
“I will get you home, girls.” I promised.
They didn’t respond.
A door opened, but I couldn’t see any kind of light streaming through the blackness. The sound of approaching footsteps raised my pulse and caused the girls to begin trembling and weeping.
As they got closer I began seeing the faint glow of a traveling light. The same blonde woman from before came into view. She was wearing a white fur around her shoulders and black leather pants on her bony legs.
She opened the cell door and summoned me forward but I resisted. She hissed and came at me with blinding speed. Her hand gripped a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back.
“You will do as I say, girl!” She demanded.
“Fuck you!” I yelled through gritted teeth and let my power slip out and slam into her. She fell to her knees as the pain gripped her.
“Run, girls!” I roared. “Run!”
But they didn’t move. They sat still and cried harder.
The vampire stood up, grabbed me by the throat and head-butted me in the face. Blood immediately spurted from my nose and top lip.
“They are bewitched to remain in this cell.” She barked. “And you won’t catch me off guard again, bitch. Now, get up and walk.” She ordered. “Or you will regret it.”
Without any other option, I started walking slowly out of the cell.
A few feet later she shoved me up a set of concrete stairs and through a wooden door that led into a dimly lit bedroom with thick red carpet and high ceilings. Across from a four-poster bed, a fireplace roared to life with sizzling logs inside.
I ached for warmth but didn’t dare move.
In front of the fireplace was a bronze bathtub with steaming water.
“You will bathe.” She directed.
When I didn’t move fast enough, she picked me up and tossed me into the scalding liquid.
It took my body a few seconds to register the pain, and I screamed as my flesh blistered. She shoved my head underwater and just as my lungs were threatening to explode she lifted up my head by my hair.
She then crushed her hand down on my jaw. “I will not repeat myself!”
A blur of a movement later, she was on her knees in front of the French doors that concealed a possible balcony.
Behind her, a slender man with long black hair, pasty skin, and empty amber eyes was smiling at me while holding her neck at an awkward angle.
“She is harmed, Mona,” he said to her in a bored voice. “You did not follow orders. And now…”
“Master.” She cried.
“Shhhh.” He caressed the side of her pale neck with his thumb and lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “I will not repeat myself either.” He winked at me as he shoved his fist through her chest and ripped out her heart.
She gasped before her body fell forward.
“Anica!” He roared. “Come and take out the trash.” He ordered while grinning at me.
A small woman scrambled in and out with Mona’s body before I could even catch a glimpse of her.
“Hello, Jade Sinclair.” He addressed me. “Welcome to Romania. I’m Gabriel.”
I wasn’t far away when I smelled them and picked up on Jade’s distress, but apparently far enough to give them an opportunity to close in on her. Lucian is not pleased. His anger is painted in purple on my face. We can’t find her. Her mother tried a locator spell. Lucian tried his connection as her alpha, and the lapdog tried reading her mind. Nothing. She is gone, and it’s all my fault.
Adrian